Turn off local display when using ARD?

[Josh Hurd]

I have a Mac at work (in an all Windows shop! I actually got them to buy me a Mac!) When I VPN in and connect thru ARD all my co-workers can see my screen, I have no privacy.

Does anyone know how to disable the screen on an iMac or any other display? I also have a G5 at home with a Cinema display.
I’ve looked at setting the brightness to it’s lowest setting but it doesn’t blank the screen. Unlike my G3 iBook which does. That in mind there has to be a setting somewhere that can be changed to allow a brightness of zero.

Any other suggestions would be helpful!

Currently I have to resort to actually putting a cover over my screen, which is kinda lame.

Thanks,
Josh

[gw1500se]

You could turn the brightness and contrast all the way down.

[Josh Hurd]

Thank you for the suggestion, but apparently you are not familiar with Apple’s newer equipment. The newer iMacs (G5/Intel) have only Brightness control and when turned down ALL the way it does not blank the screen as it does on some older system. My G3 iBook for example, as stated in my original post. Also the new Cinema displays behave in the same way, they do not blank when turned all the way down.

This is probably not a hardware limitation but a software one. I could be wrong but I am guessing there is a setting I can make 0 to do the job. This is the sort of thing I am looking for. Hidden brightness settings. I’ve looked at pmset with no luck. Are there any other power management tools that might show promise?

Thanks again tho!
Josh

[gw1500se]

I don’t know. I have a new iMac and when I turn the brightness all the way down it gets dark enough so that it is unreadable unless you are right on top of it.

[mhelman]

I believe that the feature you are looking for is being discussed (or perhaps even scheduled) for an upcoming release. Check Apple’s ARD page for the latest info.

[Josh Hurd]

Cool! But in the meantime does anyone know of hack to turn brightness to zero? Not just really dim but actually 0/black/blank/no video visable?

Thanks,
Josh

[Josh Hurd]

So I received some info on what controls the brightness buttons. Does anyone know anything about or how to hack/hook into these:
/System/Library/MonitorPanels/Display.monitorPanel/Contents/MacOS/Display
/System/Library/MonitorPanels/AppleDisplay.monitorPanels/Contents/Resources/Bezel.monitorPanel/Contents/MacOS/Bezel
/System/Library/MonitorPanels/AppleDisplay.monitorPanels/Contents/Resources/Brightness.monitorPanel/Contents/MacOS/Brightness

I’ve tried editing the nib files to allow for a negative number on the slider but this resulted in really weird behavior.
Does anyone know of any references for hooking into OS features? There are plenty of tools out there that do this.
Could an input manger plugin do the trick here?

Thanks for any info!

Josh

[Finney]

I am in a similar situation and found a workaround by accident, but I’m not sure how applicable it would be to your situation, since it works with VNC.

I installed OSXvnc on a Mac at work and found that by enabling fast user switching I can have the local machine display the login window while I use my VNC client (I use Chicken of the VNC) and access my account. Then, I run ARD from that account where I can connect to any of the other machines on my LAN.

So I’m not sure if that will help you any, but I figured I would at least offer the suggestion. I find it quite useful, and I’m no longer worried about anyone seeing what I’m doing.

-Finney

[patchsmyle]

I realize this is over a year overdue to reply. But there is another trick. You can tell the computer force sleep the display with the computer on.

Command: /usr/bin/pmset force -a displaysleep 1

Note: the “1” is in secords before sleeping the display.

Fred L.

[Magus255]

ARD 3 has Curtain which locks the screen of the computer your are controlling. It will just show a big lock not what you are doing.

[Author]

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